


Expectations

by DisKingOfErebor



Series: Motherhood [5]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Angst, F/M, Female Bilbo, Female Bilbo Baggins/Thorin Oakenshield
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-18
Updated: 2016-08-18
Packaged: 2018-08-09 11:57:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7800991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DisKingOfErebor/pseuds/DisKingOfErebor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He spends a full day by her bedside before Dís forcibly removes him from the room and all but drags him back to his own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Expectations

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [Emily](http://archiveofourown.org/users/crispyapple/) and [AJ](http://archiveofourown.org/users/skyhealer/) for being my betas again!

He spends a full day by her bedside before Dís forcibly removes him from the room and all but drags him back to his own. He expects her to scold him for neglecting his duties or to lecture him for not taking care of himself.

She does.

Dís scolds him while they eat breakfast together, then continues to do so from the other room while he bathes and gets ready for the day. But that’s fine, he expected that from her.

Afterwards, she leads him to her rooms and lectures him while she gets herself ready for the day. And that’s also fine, he expected that too. 

But wait. He could have sworn that Dís appeared to have been ready for the day when they’d sat down for breakfast… Perhaps she’d changed her mind on what she wanted to wear? 

Or perhaps this was just a way to keep him in one place while she lectured him. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d employed such tactics on him. In fact, he rather expects this to be the case today.

He was wrong.

-

He _hadn’t_ expected Dís to walk out of her room with a pebble in one arm and a bag of the child’s things in the other. 

Nor had he expected her to hand both child and bag over to him with minimal explanation before leaving to start on her duties for the day, closing the door gently behind her.

It takes him a few minutes of just staring at the door in shock to realize that she’s not playing a joke on him.

He’s not sure what Dís expects him to do with the child. He _does_ have his own duties to attend to. Besides, it had been a long time since he’d had anything to do with one so small.

He shifts his attention to the pebble in his arms to find it sucking on its thumb and blinking up at him sleepily.

For a moment, he’s struck by how similar it looks to Kíli when he was little, blue eyes aside. Its hair is much curlier than Kíli’s though, and after a moment of staring down at it, he catches sight of bare feet with curly tufts of hair on them.

No wonder Dís handed him the child. 

There’s only one person in the mountain at present that an infant hobbit could possibly belong to. He hadn’t expected her to have a child though.

He _knows_ it can’t be his and that knowledge hurts.

He almost expects her to wake up today and inform him that she’d found someone else. 

Expects the courting bead and gift to be returned. 

It would be so like her, to want to tell him in person instead of through a letter. 

Honestly, after what he’d done to her the day of the battle for the mountain, he doesn’t expect her to still love him.

He _hopes,_ but he doesn’t _expect._

A sharp tug on one of his braids breaks him out of his thoughts and he focuses again on the pebble. The little thing frowns at him for a moment before speaking in a soft, questioning tone. _Mama?_

 _Your Mama’s asleep, little one. We shouldn’t disturb her._ His words earn him a scowl from the child and another sharp tug on his braid, but he ignores it. Instead, he heads out of Dís’ rooms and begins his daily duties, brushing off any comments about the child in one arm.

-

He and the pebble had taken to visiting her when he had time to spare. It would sit beside its mother and pet her hair. Occasionally it would curl up next to her and nap, but mostly it just tried to wake her up.

He hadn’t expected the pebble to go to him for comfort when its mother didn't wake as expected. Nor did he expect for the pebble to be so stubborn in regards to who cared for it. It threw a fit every time another company member tried to have a turn at caring for it.

After the first few massive tantrums, the rest of the company seemed to come to the collective decision that it was simpler to just let the child follow him around everywhere.

He’s not sure whether or not he should have expected that, but he didn’t mind too much either way. The child was fairly easy to placate and keep entertained while he did his duties.

-

It’s been three days.

Three days since the two hobbits arrived to the mountain.

Three days since Azog was killed.

Three days.

And still she did not wake.

Three days ago, he expected her to wake up soon.

Now, he’s just praying that she wakes up at all.


End file.
